Face it. Buying music for serious fans can be a complete drag. It can really be a case of not knowing what to get for the person who seems to have heard everything already.

There is also always the risk that you get the lecture on the importance of so-and-so in terms of such-and-such obscure scene at some time in history for your efforts and wind up pinching yourself to stay awake.

Yet there is some satisfaction to be had in presenting someone with encyclopedic recall of the finest use of a Bigsby vibrato on a Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar with a package that they don’t know. Or, at the very least, one with enough rare and vintage content to keep your expert smiling and you enjoying hearing the sounds, too.

The Spirit of Memphis 1962-1976

Isaac Hayes | Stax/Craft Recordings

Isaac Hayes would have turned 75 this year. This four CD/seven-inch, vinyl-combo box set documents the late composer, singer, player and producer’s rise from the southern American club scene into one of the historic greats of soul music behind such global smashes as the Theme from Shaft and — perhaps not the best memory — voicing the character of Chef in numerous seasons of South Park. Read about how this prolific artist developed the “Memphis Sound” in the 60-page hardcover book loaded with archival photos and intelligent essays as you marvel at how futuristic such rare tracks as Sir Isaac and the Do-Dad’s Blue Groove or The Mad Lads Patch My Heart sound. Quite an appropriate collection coming in the year that Stax Records celebrates its 60th anniversary. NOTE: Craft Recordings has had a banner year with box sets as documented by its comprehensive projects on John Lee Hooker, Thelonious Monk and more.

A Man I’d Rather Be (Part 1 and 2)

Bert Jansch | Earth Recordings

As a member of the Pentangle with the incredible guitarist John Renbourn, English folk/blues artist Bert Jansch was key in shaping the entire U.K. folk/rock sound, as well as developing the distinctive guitar-hero aspects of the acoustic guitar. In terms of influence, Jansch’s fans include such luminaries as Jimmy Page, Neil Young and Johnny Marr, and many more. It’s not hard to hear why when you hear him tackle heroin addiction in the telling Needle of Death and then jump into the country shuffle of Courting Blues or get political on Anti-Apartheid. Given that these songs were coming in the mid-’60s, they were ahead of the curve to be sure. The four discs in Part 1 present Jansch’s first two 1965 albums, 1966’s Jack Orion and the reuniting of Jansch and Renbourn on 1966’s Bert and John. Just listen to how these two aces cover Charles Mingus’s Goodbye Pork Pie Hat and start practising.

The Singles

Can | Mute

As one of the most important bands in the influential and experimental German Krautrock movement of the ’70s, Cologne’s Can moved freely within avant-garde and protoambient grooves to jazz, global sounds and sometimes screeching psychedelic funk. No surprise that the band members would veer off wildly into unique directions on their solo recordings too, as they proved a seemingly endless source of ideas during the 1966-1979 original era. Even after reforming in the early 1990s, one thing Can was never known for was releasing singles. Turns out the band better known for long, meandering jams could take it all down into an under-four-minute-long track such as the swinging She Brings the Rain or the zippy Vitamin C. In a perfect world, many of the songs collected here should have charted. Now that they’re getting a second exposure, expect to hear some of these tunes covered by a band near you. They’re deserving.

Space, Energy and Light

Various artists | Soul Jazz Records

If the only music you owned was compilations from London’s Soul Jazz Records, you would have an amazing album collection. Quite simply one of the world’s best compilation labels, its releases frequently target specific themes. This particular compilation collects music that was influenced by the space race from artists in the 1960s to the late 1980s. Trying to find most of these original tracks would be impossible, as early computer musicians like Laurie Spiegel and Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company have been out of print for ages and they didn’t exactly produce many copies of the original recordings anyways. From seriously experimental attempts at sonic exploration with new technologies to underground ’80s grit that would shape the contemporary electronic music scene, this is a fantastic voyage.

Even a Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk Rock 1969-1973

Various artists | Light in the Attic

From the folks at the label that gave us the brilliant two-volume, Native North America collection comes this compilation of rare music licensed for the first time outside of Japan. Turns out, the island nation had its own distinct ’60s sound emerge with the “New Music” sound of artists such as Kazuhiko Kato or Akai Tori. Mixing rock, jazz, psychedelia and traditional folk protest tunes, this often-experimental music scene — check out Gu’s Marianne for an interesting use of bird calls — helped set the controls for the heart of the Rising Sun.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

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2017 musical box sets for serious music fans

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